Alderholt gutter cleaning, cleared or replaced
Nothing here is listed and there is no conservation area, so if a run genuinely cannot cope you are free to change it. We will tell you which you need.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Clearing is the right answer most of the time. It is not the right answer when a gutter is simply too small, too flat or too old for the roof above it, and in Alderholt there is nothing at all stopping you changing one.
Two calls come out of the village more than any other. The first is an ordinary autumn one: the runs have not been touched for a few years and water is starting to come over somewhere. The second is the one that matters more. Somebody has had the gutters cleared twice already and it is still overflowing in every heavy shower, and nobody has told them why.
So the visit answers both. Every run cleared out by hand, the outlets picked clear, water put through each downpipe until it runs out at the shoe, and then a straight opinion on whether what you have is a maintenance problem or a system that has come to the end of its life. The site visit and the written itemised quote are free, and clearing and replacing are always shown as separate lines.
The work
Clearing, proving, and knowing when to stop clearing
Clearing first, then an honest answer about whether clearing is enough.
Emptying and proving the system. Debris out by hand into a bag rather than flushed along the run, because a flush through a full gutter packs the outlet. Then every outlet is picked clear, water goes in at the far end of each length and we watch it come out at the shoe. Where a downpipe disappears into a gully or a soakaway we check it is taking water rather than backing up at ground level, because that looks exactly like a blocked gutter from an upstairs window.
Plastic that has done its thirty years. A good deal of the housing here went up in the nineteen eighties, and the half round plastic gutter fitted then is now well past its best. Sunlight makes it brittle, the union seals harden and stop sealing, and the brackets lose their grip so a length bows between them. You can spot it from the ground: a run with a sag in the middle, a joint with a white bloom of limescale under it, and a downpipe clipped back to the wall in three different colours of fitting.
Repairs that are worth doing. A run that has lost its fall gets re-hung rather than replaced: brackets off, line reset, run refixed to a proper fall towards the outlet. A weeping joint gets a new union seal. A cracked shoe or a missing bracket is a ten minute fix while somebody is already up there. None of that is clearing, so it appears on its own line.
When the run is the problem. Sometimes the gutter is simply undersized for the roof feeding it, or the roof was extended and the outlet never was. A steep pitch, a long slope or a valley discharging into a short length will overwhelm a shallow half round gutter no matter how clean it is. That is when a deeper profile, a second outlet or an extra downpipe is the fix, and in this village you are free to do exactly that.
What the overflow has already reached. Fascia, soffit and then the brickwork or render below. Green staining, damp showing on an inside wall and soft timber behind the gutter all get photographed while the access is there, because they date the problem better than anybody's memory does.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, the length of run, the number of outlets and downpipes, any repair, and where the debris goes on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Clearing needs no permission, and replacing rainwater goods like for like is repair rather than development, so Planning Portal guidance leaves it alone. New or altered rainwater drainage does sit under Approved Document H. What makes Alderholt unusual is that there is no conservation area over the village and no listed entries in it, so nothing here is protected fabric and nobody has to be asked about a colour or a profile. Dorset Council is the authority.
Cost
What decides the price of a gutter clean
No rate per square metre, because a metre of gutter behind a conifer and a metre on an open gable are not the same metre.
Getting to it. A nineteen eighties detached house with a run down the side of the garage, a bungalow with a long low rear length, and a chalet house with a dormer breaking the line are three different set-ups before anybody starts. A bungalow run comes off a ladder or a pole, a three storey gable wants a tower, and a valley gutter between two roofs wants a proper platform. The work at height rules are why the access is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate.
What is in it, and how far it has travelled. Leaf litter lifts out in minutes. Moss washed off the tiles sets into a wet mat that has to be dug out, and silt in a long run behind a hedge is heavier and slower than anything a photograph shows. The number of outlets matters more than the length, because that is where it packs.
Whether it is a clean or a repair. A joint that drips once it is running again, a downpipe blocked at the shoe, a length of plastic that has sagged between brackets: none of that is clearing, and it is the part that decides whether you are booking an hour or half a day.
Comparing quotes? Ask whether the downpipes are being run through or just the gutter cleared, whether the outlets and hoppers are checked, whether it is a clear or a clear and a check for leaks, and who takes the debris away. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it is overflowing now
Water coming over the gutter in heavy rain
Ring rather than use the form. Water running down a wall in a downpour soaks the brickwork and finds its way to a ceiling faster than most people expect, so a blocked outlet in a wet week goes to the front of the queue. We clear it, run water through to prove it, and tell you honestly if what you actually have is a broken joint rather than a blockage. If it has already been cleared once this year and is still going over, say so on the phone, because that changes what we come out to look at. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Nothing here is protected, which is useful
Most villages on this patch come with something to ask permission about. Alderholt does not. There is no conservation area over it and nothing in it is listed, which means the rainwater goods on your house are yours to decide about. Colour, profile, whether the downpipe runs on the front elevation or round the corner, whether a shallow half round gutter is swapped for a deeper section that will actually carry what the roof sends it: none of that needs anyone's approval.
That matters because it changes the sensible advice. In a protected village the answer to a gutter that cannot cope is usually to clear it more often and live with it, because the fitting itself has to stay as it is. Here you can fix the cause instead. If a run overflows every winter after two proper cleans, spending once on a bigger profile or a second outlet beats paying for a clean twice a year forever, and we will tell you which of those two you are actually looking at.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Alderholt, Cranborne, Sandleheath, Fordingbridge and across to Verwood, broadly SP6 and BH21, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Alderholt questions we get asked
The gutters were cleared twice and still overflow. What now?
Then it is not a debris problem. Either the run has lost its fall and is holding water, or the gutter is undersized for the roof above it. Both are visible once somebody is up there with water running, and both are fixable. Clearing it a third time is not the answer.
Is it worth replacing thirty year old plastic gutter?
Often, yes. Plastic of that age goes brittle in sunlight, the union seals harden and the brackets let go, so you end up paying for repairs that keep moving along the run. We will say plainly whether you are looking at a couple of seals or a system at the end of its life.
Can we fit a bigger gutter without asking the council?
Here you can. There is no conservation area over Alderholt and nothing listed in it, so the size, profile and colour of your rainwater goods are your choice. Altering the drainage they run into is the one part covered by the building regulations.
Our downpipe goes into the ground. How do we know that is clear?
By putting water down it and watching. If the level rises at the shoe or comes back up at the gully, the problem is below ground rather than in the gutter, and we will tell you that instead of clearing the run again.
Do you take the old gutter away if we change it?
Yes. Whatever comes off leaves with us along with the debris, and the site is swept before we go. It is itemised on the quote as disposal so you can see it rather than find it added afterwards.
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Find out whether it needs clearing or changing
Thomas comes out, clears and proves every run, then sends a written itemised quote with clearing, repair and replacement priced separately. Free.